There are an awful lot of things you can do to a rock and roll
\nbeat… maybe even some that Kenneth Starr hasn’t thought of yet.
\nBut — oddly enough, when you think about it — if there’s one
\nthing I can’t do with rock and roll blasting away in the
\nbackground, it’s write.<\/p>\n
I discovered the solution to this serious dilemma at some point
\nin my second or third year of college, way back when heavy metal
\ndinosaurs roamed the earth. I think it may have been the night I
\ntried to turn out a last-minute political science paper to the tune
\nof “You Shook Me All Night Long” — no, wait, it’s that damned
\nStarr report scrambling my memory banks again.<\/p>\n
In any case, the musical punchline to the story is that one of
\nmy roomies (not an AC\/DC fan, clearly) turned me on to Larry
\nCarlton.<\/p>\n
Carlton, one of the most well-traveled and well-regarded session
\nguitarists of the 70s, gradually moved from providing expert
\nsupport for the likes of Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell and Quincy Jones
\nto producing his own solo instrumental material, quickly
\nprogressing into that perilous no man’s-land known as jazz-pop
\nfusion. You could characterize jazz-pop fusion as music that makes
\njazz players ask where the jazz is, pop listeners ask where the
\nsinger is, and your average booking agent ask where the future is.
\nA ticket to wide airplay and big sales, it generally ain’t.<\/p>\n
Carlton had one distinct advantage, though: he turned out to be
\none of the finest jazz-pop fusion guitarist\/composers ever.<\/p>\n
\nKid Gloves<\/i> in many ways sums up Carlton’s long career,
\nincorporating many of the thematic elements he has returned to
\nagain and again. There’s jamming light jazz, featuring
\nswinging\/stinging by-play between electric guitar, keyboards and
\nsax (“Oui Oui Si”); sweet acoustic verse-chorus pop (the title
\ntune); grooving, soulful, George Bensonesque fusion (“The
\nPreacher”); and extended, bluesy soloing (“Where Be Mosada?”).<\/p>\n
He also makes sure to throw in a cleverly arranged instrumental
\ntake on a classic pop song, “Just My Imagination,” a worthy
\nsuccessor to his Grammy-winning instrumental take on the Doobie
\nBrothers’ “Minute by Minute.” (Trivia Quiz time: Carlton also did a
\nnice cover of “Layla” on his 1989 album
\nOn Solid Ground<\/i>, and his other Grammy win was for co-writing
\nthe theme to
\nHill Street Blues<\/i> with Mike Post.)<\/p>\n
As always, the performers Carlton brings together to play with
\nhim on
\nKid Gloves<\/i> are among the absolute class of the session
\nworld, from widely heard and highly melodic Nashville keyboardist
\nMatt Rollings, to rock-solid rhythm section Abe Laboriel (bass) and
\nJohn Ferraro (drums), to sax man supreme Kirk Whalum.<\/p>\n
This album, like all the best of Carlton’s 20-plus
\nsolo\/collaborative fusion albums, is pure brain food, music you can
\nwork — and yes, even write — to and finish feeling refreshed. Of
\ncourse, it makes nice background music for a romantic evening, too
\n— but that’s YOUR business, not mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5974],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35991","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-larry-carlton","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35991"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35991"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}